1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to mouth guards used by athletes and implements for securing the mouth guards to helmets or facemasks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mouth guards or mouth pieces used to protect the teeth of athletes are known in the art. As it relates to American football, the mouthpieces typically are tethered such that they can be wrapped around and fastened to the face mask of the helmet. When not in use the mouth guards are pulled out and hang from the face mask. As is known in the art, mouthpieces including tethers are either adapted to be looped at their ends and fastened to itself around the facemask, or the tether can be fastened directly to the face mask. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,738 to Berghash the protective mouthpiece has a bulb and loop at its end, and the bulb loops into the end of the tether. In Kittelsen et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,810) the wishbone end of the tether is anchored to the facemask. These types of mouth guards can be quite expensive and typically are not used by budget-constrained football programs, such as in high school. Programs for younger athletes may not even provide mouthpieces, but require the student-athletes to purchase them independently. This results in a wide-variety of different mouth guards being used, some of which do not include tethers or fastening means. Thus, for mouth pieces which do not include tethers, athletes must hold the mouth guards upon removal from the mouth, or insert the mouth guards snugly between the rows forming the face-mask. As is known in the art, a mouthpiece without a tether is simply wedged in between the bars of the facemask. Among other problems, this can be unsanitary and the mouth guards can easily be lost during the event leading to safety and additional expense issues. Furthermore, most helmet facemasks are not designed for this particular purpose, especially when the helmets and facemasks are non-traditional or used for sports other than football.
There is a need then for a mouth guard securing device well-suited for non-tethered mouth guards which is adapted to accessibly situate the mouth guard directly on the helmet.